Natural Evil (A Novella of the Elder Races) [Kindle Edition]

Thea Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Attempted Murder. Passion. Betrayal. It’s a dog-eat-dog world.

A Novella of the Elder Races

Claudia Hunter is on a road trip through the Nevada desert when she sees the body of a dog on the side of the highway. Pulling over to investigate, she quickly determines that the enormous animal is clinging to life. While working to save him with the help of the local vet, Claudia realizes there’s something about the creature that seems more. Other. Wyr. Which makes this case of animal cruelty attempted murder.

Too injured to shape shift, Luis Alvaraz is reluctant to tell Claudia what he knows about his attack, afraid it will only make her a target. But the sheriff is corrupt, and his attackers know Luis is alive and vulnerable. To make matters worse, a sandstorm is sweeping into town, and if they're going to survive the night, Luis will have to place all his trust in Claudia.

Warning: Take a gorgeous man temporarily stuck in the dog house, add a strong, take-no-prisoners woman, mix in encroaching enemies and a raging sandstorm and stir to combine. Enjoy with a freshly opened can of whoop-ass.

Product Details

• File Size: 241 KB
• Print Length: 85 pages
• Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (March 20, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007KSE4Y8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,479 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Novella With Abrupt End March 23, 2012

By Lulu

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I confess I love Thea Harrison's Elder Races series. She's an excellent writer who has built a really compelling world involving shape-shifting wyr, dark and light fae, vampires, and all sorts of other creatures that inhabit an alternate world in the present day. This novella is not really the best example of her work and doesn't add much to the series overall, but is still entertaining.

40 year old retired Special Forces soldier Claudia Hunter is driving along a deserted stretch of highway in Nevada when she sees a huge dog lying injured and dying by the side of the road. Turns out it is 27 year old Luis Alvarez, who is actually a wyr on a mission to investigate a local mining company. The story focuses on Luis' rescue by Claudia, recovery in the tiny mining town she takes him to, and what exactly happened to him. The mystery isn't really much of a mystery. The bad guys are identified right away and brought to justice. Claudia is a fun character, different than the usual 25-34 year old heroine. Luis has a lot of hunky alpha male appeal and his being much younger than Claudia is also fun and different.

Harrison does a great job of creating the atmosphere of the tiny mining town, dusty roads, vast expanse of desert and corruption of some of the locals. Claudia and Luis are appealing characters and likeable as a couple. But the story ends pretty abruptly. We readers get our HEA, sort of. Luis has found his mate for sure in Claudia but the age difference between them and the fact that Luis, being wyr, has a longer life span than the human Claudia means that they won't have a lot of time together in the grand scheme of things. It's a bit of a downer at the end as a result. Harrison uses a box of unique tarot cards to loosely tie this short story back to an earlier, better one ( True Colors) and, at the end, the box is passed on to another so it looks like there will be more to come. Overall, not my favorite of Harrison's novellas. 3.5 stars.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really liked this short story March 29, 2012

By P. Fox

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really liked this short story, although, like other reviewers, I think it would have made a great book, and I want to know more about Claudia and Luis' lives. Maybe she will incorporate it in one of her other books.

I prefer reading urban fantasy books, but also like paranormal romance(PR) ones. The problem is there are a lot of bad and really bad PR books and writers. Before reading Natural Evil, I just finished one of the not-really-bad but not-really-good PR books--I won't say the name. I started reading the book and thought the writing was a little too cutesy, but it wasn't bad, and then the heroine does something with her supernatural powers that we the reader didn't know or had any hint she had. Other plot consistencies followed. I put the book down several times before finishing it and marking that author off my list of want-to-read more.

With Natural Evil, Ms. Harrison works Claudia's skills into the narrative so that when she pulls some fantastic moves out in a fight, we're not really surprised. The author also hints at other skills which makes me think she may bring the couple back.

And the writing is so smooth that I found myself wrapped in the story without internal editor going "what?" or "another typical sex scene" that PR writers are so guilty of.

If you haven't read Ms. Harrison's book, Dragon Bound, please check it out. I think it is my favorite PR story. I didn't like her other books as well, but they were still worth reading.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Major Hunter shows a Wyr what she can do... April 7, 2012

By Elf2060

Format:Kindle Edition

"Natural Evil" by Thea Harrison is a novella that features Major Claudia Hunter, a rare female Green Beret who retired early from the Army, and Wyr Luis Alvaraz, a Peacekeeper with the Elder tribunal. Claudia is speeding across the desert in Nevada when she succumbs to an irresistible urge to come to the aid of an injured animal and becomes entangled in far more than she anticipated. A mysterious deck of Tarot cards that only seem to display the Major Arcana of the seven Elder gods indicates that Claudia will experience a life-altering event but the forty-year old woman is reluctant to believe the omens, struggling to overcome the scars to her psyche left from her tours of duty. A strong sense of duty and an inexplicable mutual attraction with the younger Luis govern her actions as she utilizes her combat skills to help him destroy an evil presence in the desert.

A wonderfully creative treatment of a familiar evil that has frequently been in the news. The definition of natural evil as something other than natural disasters but rather the tendency to perform actions that cause great harm is reflected by the behavior of the villains of this tale. There are wonderful interactions between the self-reliant Claudia and the ultra-protective Luis (I particularly enjoyed her method of eliciting proof that he was a Wyr) in this great tale of two warriors who join forces. The chemistry that arises between her characters is always irresistible to my romantic side and I especially enjoyed the balance in protectiveness displayed between these two. I always enjoy the author's dexterity at creating a world that allows the fascinating Wyr to coexist with humans and look forward to future tales involving this duo.

© Night Owl Reviews

More About the Author

Thea Harrison resides in Colorado. She wrote her first book, a romance, when she was nineteen and had sixteen romances published under the name Amanda Carpenter.

She took a break from writing to collect a couple of graduate degrees and a grown child. Her graduate degrees are in Philanthropic Studies and Library Information Science, but her first love has always been writing fiction. She's back with her paranormal Elder Races series. You can check out her website at: www.theaharrison.com, and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.